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Wily Octopi Walk on Two Arms
lousyd writes "Offering hope for new forms of ambulatory robots, biologist Christine L. Huffard, at UC Berkeley, has caught individual octopi sneaking away from predators by using two of their arms as legs. They use the other six arms to make themselves look like coconuts or algae. The research is being done as part of a project on robotics. This reminds me of the Far Side cartoon where the cows drop to all fours when humans come around, but resume standing on two legs otherwise." And I for one welcome our new mollusk overlords.
And I for one welcome our new mollusk overlords.
Octopus are spooky smart. They are pretty good problem solvers, they have excellent vision and a bizarre sense of curiosity. They will explore just about everything they can access, and have distinct personalities. They are in all likelihood the smartest organisms in the sea second to cetaceans. I wrote in a previous discussion on Slashdot about my pet octopus, Cephus (short for cephalopod), but that was only one instance of amazing behaviors I had witnessed. I have also dived off the Pacific Northwest with giant pacific red octopus (Octopus dofleini) and found them to be quite curious and for the most part docile (this is in contrast to squid which are truly ruthless aliens that would kill you if given the slightest chance) unless you piss em off and which point they usually simply want to get away. However, I have seen them steal items from divers and swim off with them as well.
The interesting thing about robotics and control of complex systems like this is the computational control required of such structures. Octopus can almost seemingly turn themselves to liquid and fit through the most amazingly small spaces, yet their strength would amaze (and I suspect scare) you. Even my pet octopus (Octopus bimaculoides) who was about a foot long could generate incredible forces from very muscular arms. The giant octopus would be so strong, they could likely (literally) tear you apart if they were not so docile. Here is the deal though: They need an aqueous environment to move effectively. I suspect that for robotics teams, some combination of hydrostatic muscles and exoskeletons would be necessary, which now that I am thinking about it could be huge for artificial limbs for amputees. Right now the most advanced artificial limbs have internally driven servos that have limits on torque that are quite low. This technology could open the door for more capable artificial limbs and exoskeletons to enhance human movement as well as robotics.
Oh, other links of interest to the original Science paper are here, but you need a subscription to see the full text article. The movies linked there though are free.
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So the plural should be octopodes.
(In the same way, platypodes is the plural of platypus)
So I take it we've all heard the story about the guy who filmed his pet octopus climbing out of its saltwater tank, crawling 12 feet across the floor and up a stand into a freshwater tank to eat the goldfish before heading back?
I've never been aware of being close to large squid and couldn't begin to guess their mindset, but I've swum amongst thousands of modest sized squid who have exhibited no hostility whatsoever.
In all seriousness, I've found squid to be some of the coolest creatures I've ever seen, and they can be very hard to see. They usually make themselves appear to be just like water, which is probably useful for animals that most things would find to be tender and yummy. So if you're looking for squid, you don't quite look for anything tangible, mostly you look for an odd change in the refraction of the water, and then you see if the refraction has eyes.
If you can do this, and it is admittedly an odd skill, keep looking, and you may find that the eyes are studying you very intentedly (and I always assumed without malice!) Often once you see one you will realize that you are surrounded by hundreds of them, and once they realize you see them and don't seem to be a threat, they sort of 'uncloak'. Their skin is the coolest thing you have ever seen, it almost has a television like effect, as it pulses and flows with many colors, very fast and trippy.
They have the oddest motion, they approach you tentacles first, but they flee tentacles back, and as they watch you, they pulse back and forth in curiosity (maybe that is malice!) and fear, with their colors and patterns pulsing in time. I have always felt that they are communicating with a visual language, though obviously that language lacks phrases like "Stay away from the boat with the bright lights!"
I agree with you that octopuses are super cool, I sometimes look for them when I snorkel, and again looking for an octopus is like looking for something that isn't quite not there. They have great camoflage, so mostly you look where they ought to be in a crack or something, and you usually figure out they're there before you quite see them. They have the coolest ambulation and jet powered swimming too.
I've read that octopuses are mostly built of liquid tissue. Can't pretend to understand exactly how that works, but I've seen a large octopus flow through a pinhole, it's the weirdest thing.
If you're stoned and bored, surely you can come up with something funny! Barring that, there's nothing wrong with reposting a relevant comment. What you should have done was
A) posted it in reply to BW Jone's original post,
B) titled it "For the lazy" (or something similar), and
C) stated explicitly that you were reposting BW's comment.
Then you'd be more likely to get modded "Informative" than "Redundant".
"The newly born animals are then whisked off for a quick run through a giant baking oven." --heard on Food Network
...for an octopus. These creatures never cease to amaze me; they're absolutely fascinating. It's therefore such a pity that they all have such short lives: once they reach sexual maturity, they reproduce and die. Most do not live more than one or two years. The giant Pacific octopus lives longer than most: males about 4 years and females about 3.5.
Perhaps it's their reproductive strategy which is to blame. The females produce zillions of little eggs, which they guard with their lives, but do not take care of the young once they've hatched. Having been so successful in producing so many offspring, there's no evolutionary advantage for them to be around any longer and so they die. Being part of the same reproductive strategy, the males don't last much longer either (actually, I can't think of any examples in the natural world where one sex significantly outlives the other).
As I was saying, life is short for an octopus.
The reason people are pissed here is that hte original article and most scientists use the word "octopuses." The jerk who submitted it changed the word to "octopi," which is wrong. Nobody is saying that "octopodes" is the best choice.
That's because using torque to generate torque is easy to calculate.
If it's easy to calculate, it's easy to model. if it's easy to model then its less risky to build, and you know why it doesn't work when it doesn't work.
Of course there are a few undergrad mechatronics engineers at my university that want to do what you say. Let them see the math. If they crack the math, then I'll sign up to pay them for my first hardsuit.